Ken Rosewall, regarded as one of the heavyweights of tennis and a living treasure, has advised wild child Bernard Tomic to view Lleyton Hewitt as a role model.

Tomic has been under intense scrutiny after a litany of dramas that included being accused of tanking, suffering a drop in form, watching his world ranking drop from a career-high 27 to 51 and being dismissed as a disruptive force when Australia dropped out of the Davis Cup World Group after losing to Germany in September.

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A moment with Ken Rosewall

The Sun-Herald's Daniel Lane sat down to talk tennis with former champion Ken Rosewall.

Life had been as tumultuous away from the court for the 20-year-old after some widely reported brushes with the Queensland police. On Monday he attended a Gold Coast court and was fined $1000 and placed on a good behaviour bond after being found guilty of failing to stop for police.

Rosewall said Tomic's youth meant he had time to alter his course. The winner of the Australian, US and French opens suggested the youngster would do well to take a leaf from of Hewitt's book.

''We've all had our moments,'' said Rosewall when asked if Tomic's antics upset him.

''Our best role model for the last few years has been Lleyton Hewitt. Lleyton, with his ability and his reputation … I think Bernard has a lot to learn. He has some ability and I think he recognised he needs to work harder on his game.

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''I think he has to take notice of the more experienced players. Pat Rafter, as captain of the Australian Davis Cup team, is someone he should be listening to a lot more; up until a little while ago it was just [Tomic] and his father travelling together.

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''We were lucky in the early days in that we had a group of players and we spent a lot of time together in teams that were sent overseas by Tennis Australia and managed by Harry Hopman. He had authority and we had to behave.''

Bernard Tomic reacts after losing his match against Alexandr Dolgopolov of the Ukraine in 2011. Photo: Getty Images

Rosewall, who will release his book Muscles: The story of Ken Rosewall, Australia's little master of the courts later this month spoke frankly to Fairfax about a number of issues concerning his sport.

Lleyton Hewitt as Davis Cup captain

''Lleyton still has a lot to offer Australian tennis [as a player] even though he might be past his best. I'm sure Lleyton is planning to continue to play on and if he stays injury-free he should. I think he has an ambition to take over the role as non-playing Davis Cup captain one day and I think he'd be very good. A lot of the younger players know him more than they do me or any of the other older players, even though Pat Rafter has a great reputation and is very popular with the players. I think if Patrick dropped out as time progresses, Lleyton - if he had the time and desire - should do it. A lot of young players could learn from his attitude.''

The pressure on Sam Stosur

''Samantha had a few girls come through the [Australian] ranks behind her but unfortunately they haven't progressed a great deal. She probably feels a bit of pressure. A lot of players perform better when they're out of their homeland. She won the US Open, so her performances have been better overseas than in Australia. I think it's something everyone goes through. I remember whenever I played in Sydney in front of my family and my home supporters [it was hard] - and that was very true when we played the Davis Cup in 1954 in front of a record Davis Cup crowd at White City. I think Lew Hoad and I were overawed by playing at our home club, in front of our home crowd, our families, friends [because] neither of us played as well as we'd hoped.''

Getting Gen Y to play tennis

''The tennis authorities, led by Tennis Australia, are trying different things. They have the Hot Shots program, which is tennis played on smaller courts with lower nets and is played with softer balls. They're trying to introduce kids and hope as they get bigger and stronger they'll go into mainstream tennis. There are other competitions that the administrators have introduced. We'd like to think all the coaching programs are in place. They have good people advising the leading players and there are good juniors playing in regular competitions. It would be beneficial to have more overseas competition, but we need to come up with money to send players away. There is a lot to be done but we are moving in the right direction by doing things such as improving facilities. There is, however, a lot of competition. My granddaughter plays touch football just for the enjoyment.''

Will tennis become as popular as it was in the 1950s

''I don't think so. It's a difficult one to answer, we're all hopeful because tennis has been a great sport. Supporters want to see our players do well. Hopefully, in the very near future we unearth some outstanding players. I think the coaching programs are in place and there seems to be enough players around. It'd be good if we had two players rise together and fed off each other as Lew Hoad and I did. We were the opposites of each other in many ways but while we were friends off the court we fed off each other hoping we'd become better.''

Have hardcourts killed shots and styles

''I think a lot of we older players look at it that way. There were some weaknesses in the way we played on the grasscourts with the old wooden racquets. There wasn't the power, there wasn't the reaction of the ball off the face off the racquet and because of the smaller head we couldn't get excessive topspin. But we thought the tennis we played certainly had much more variety. However, you can't deny the modern player's abilities.

They've probably been helped with the equipment; they're all big guys; they all have big serves, are good off the ground and that's how they prefer to win. Roger Federer is probably one of the best of all time; he has a good volley but is so good from the back of the court, that's where he wins most of his games.''